October 4/Jackson, Miss./University of Mississippi -- In a recent study, Mississippi researchers examined two chicken nuggets from national fast-food chains to see what they were made of.

The researchers chose one nugget from a box of nuggets at each restaurant. They then preserved and dissected the nuggets. The first nugget was made up of about 50% muscle, with the rest being a mixture of fat, blood vessels and nerves. Some of the cells in this nugget came from the skin and internal organs of a chicken. The second nugget that the group tested was about 40% meat, with the other 60% being made up of fat, cartilage and pieces of bone. The researchers decided not to disclose which fast-food chains the nuggets came from, reports Reuters.

“This is cartilage. This is gastrointestinal tissue. There’s all kinds of random stuff in there that’s not chicken meat,” Dr. Richard deShazo, a professor of medicine and pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, explained.

"Chicken meat was not the predominate component in either nugget," the researchers write. "Fat was present in equal or greater quantities along with epithelium, bone, nerve, and connective tissue."